The role of Native American print and online media in the ‘era of big stories’

Abstract

In the face of continuing fragmentation of media audiences and an obsession by most news outlets with the ‘big story’, this article examined the coverage of one such ‘big story’ by four Native American media outlets. An analysis of the news reporting of the shootings of 10 students in Red Lake, Minnesota, on 21 March 2005 showed that while the Internet has changed the role of these outlets, both the printed and electronic Native American media maintain their relevance by providing news by and for Native Americans. Even as some of the Native American media utilized a ‘filtering’ strategy to showcase stories of particular interest to their audiences, these particular ethnic media outlets have begun to realize the advantages and flexibility of the web as a news medium. Construction of meaning theory was used to better understand the role of the Native American media in the so-called ‘era of big stories’.